For my final year in Uni I was managing three of the Undergraduate Short Films: TV Dinner, Hero’s Spirit and Baobhan Sith. Each team needed an accessible schedule – so it was time to build some on Flow Production Tracking!

TV DINNER

Due to the nature of TV Dinner being a series of shorts, everything was approached as a combination of sequences. Each sequence could have general tasks applied to it as each short needed separate designs for characters, backgrounds and so on. We then approached the film production section by section, starting with the longer, more complex shorts and ending with the simpler ones. It was also valuable to have a combination of 2D and 3D sections as these utilised different groups of artists and could be run simultaneously.

HERO’S SPIRIT

At this stage in the process I did not yet have a second coordinator on the team, so it was down to me to make the software suit my needs for the project. The available task templates had setups for 2D or 3D, but not both combined as the film is. Therefore, I went through each shot, noting the tasks that would be required and working out the best task template to cover the majority of shots and asked my supervisor to help me create this in the software. This could then be adapted as required to suit any shots that strayed from that base setup.

BAOBHAN SITH

As the most unconventional setup of all my projects, Baobhan Sith is a non-linear narrative with many overlapping and merging assets across the shots. Now armed with the ability to create new templates, we took an asset-based approach with separate setups for Animated, 2D Rigs and Matte Paintings. This meant the project could be mainly tracked through asset progress with a simple checklist of making sure everything was ready and then comped on each shot.

And voila – each team had a functioning project!

Beyond the animation pipeline schedules, the films also called for audio recordings and some live action filming. This was a great bit of experience in coordinating the schedules of people from various projects alongside renting out equipment and booking out the appropriate rooms. It was a good opportunity to think specifically about timescales, including setup and takedown, as well as considering everything that would be required to successfully film or record on that day.

I worked with a vast array of people across my projects and I wanted to do everything I could to create a healthy, functioning team. Whilst I aimed to hold all meetings in person to get regular face to face contact with my teams, those who could not make it were able to join online. I was more likely to schedule regular check ins with those I was not seeing regularly in order to both update them on the project and be given updates on how their work was coming along. I would aim to be a supportive and approachable presence in my groups – making sure to visit the working areas of various team members so we were keeping up a good working relationship – and would try to find solutions where possible if someone was struggling or required accommodations. Sometimes this was something I could do directly such as redelegating workload or adjusting deadlines, but sometimes this was knowing when to redirect someone to a staff member or service that could provide better assistance.

Working with so many people is one of my favourite things about Production roles! Across this final year, I worked with around 47 people across the course and learned so much with them and from them.

A significant amount of my time and energy went into managing the groups and their members – but then who is managing me? Also myself.

First and foremost, it was incredibly important to me that I had my own tasks in line – particularly those that could cause a delay for someone else further down the pipeline. I felt that the deadlines I was setting others would hold no weight if I could not stick to them myself. I would achieve this with weekly and daily to-do lists to break down a semester’s tasks into manageable chunks, always trying to allow some breathing room towards the end of a week to catch up on any tasks that have had possible delays.

I was also very aware that due to my role in this environment, a lot of people would need to bring the things weighing on them to me – whether that was in explanation of a missed deadline or just needing support in some way. In order to be able to take this on, I make sure to find ways to relieve my own stresses away from the group situations. This may mean getting advice myself from a member of staff, planning my week to fit in specific non-work time, or just taking myself away from the issue for a brief time before responding if the interaction is through message to make sure I am going in with a clear head. All of these things allow me to be a blank slate to genuinely listen to the things people bring without being impacted by other issues and then properly consider the best course of action.

Running a project – or multiple – unfortunately did involve a steep learning curve in crisis management. Through these experiences I learned that working through the following steps would get us to the other side as smoothly as possible.

STEP 1 – Stay Calm.

As simple as it sounds, if stress is clogging judgement then it is vital to find a way to clear it. Depending how time-sensitive the issue was, I found it could be valuable to take a minute to let the initial reaction pass to see the issue in a more manageable sense.

STEP 2 – What can be done right now?

If anything can be solved there and then, get it done. I would try to avoid planning to contact someone and rather just do it, especially if there are others with you who can give input. Due to the number of people I was working with across projects, I could often find an available artist to help out or an asset to recycle that would lighten the load for a team member. Whilst I tried not to do it too often in case my own workload became too intense, I could also take on parts of tasks myself if my schedule allowed.

STEP 3 – What further things need to happen?

Deciding as soon as possible if other people will be needed, if timelines can be adjusted and if any other steps need to be taken can immediately make the problem more appear more manageable, not just to myself but to anyone else involved in the situation. Something else I learned a lot about was knowing in which situations you can make certain decisions yourself if there is a lack of communication, or if you need to make sure there is time to get a response from someone before proceeding.

STEP 4 – Who needs support?

If the situation will still be impacting others, are there any ways their stress can be relieved? Sometimes it was important to clearly communicate exactly how the situation was being handled, whereas there were other scenarios where it was useful to make sure only the relevant people knew there was even an issue to begin with.

Through various unexpected obstacles throughout the year, I often found that an issue could be fixed by Step 2 – causing minimal stress to the teams.

One of the situations we ran into with TV Dinner was the question of copyright. One of the concepts used both a specific brand and audio from a specific show, and since we wanted to be able to share our film however we may want to in the future, it was time to figure this out.

After spending a painful day or two realising why I didn’t pursue a career in law and only feeling confident in my conclusions that the base concept fit safely into ‘parody’, it was time to go straight to the source. On my supervisor’s recommendation, I got in touch with the brand company directly and the lack of a clean-cut answer was my answer – don’t risk it.

The information online around the dialogue use was very contradictory but then I realised: this uni has a law school! I got in touch with the school’s student engagement officer who put me in contact with a lecturer specialising in copyright law and from there it was easy to directly ask my question and get clear answers.